Simons took a bold step and sent his clients a video via his newsletter over the weekend of October 30th that tells the story of Jennyfer, a young woman who had received medical attention just days before when she died.
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For Peter Simons, this particular project aims to celebrate beauty through life’s trials, while some voices in English Canada denounce the exploitation of death for commerce.
“The world is not about trade. Ultimately, it’s about relationships and our ability to be in the community with a sense of responsibility for others,” Peter Simons told the Journal de Québec.
Whoever handed over the presidency from Simons last March piloted the project. He admits to having been hurt by the few virulent comments made about this initiative, which are based on his good intentions, although he expected them not to be unanimous.
“Is there beauty and creativity without courage? I say this with humility, but I think not. Without courage there is only continuity of what is. That’s not enough for us,” he says, making it clear that he wanted to do something meaningful that goes beyond the roles on Instagram and Tik Tok.
The three-minute video, titled All Is Beauty, begins in an empty hospital room. We hear a woman’s voice saying that dying in the hospital is not the natural way out of the hospital and that we need serenity in these moments. Then she says that sometimes life only really makes sense in the face of death. Then the viewer discovers Jennyfer, a 37-year-old musician, drawing circles in the sand of a beach. We dive into his desires, into nature, into his friendships and all the little things that make up the beauty of his life.
For the marketing medium The Message, the “Everything is Beauty” campaign “raised the current trend for brands to position themselves on social issues to a new level”.
Photo archive Jean-François Desgagnés
University of Ottawa communications professor Luc Dupont notes that Simons’ video marks a shift in the way the company promotes its identity. He notes that the company pushes more than advertising in the area of social responsibility, an area where death is forbidden.
“We’re not far from public relations. But we’re two blocks from Christmas, I have to tell you,” stresses Mr. Dupont, for whom the initiative is reminiscent of Benetton’s audacity in the 1990s, when the company showed the last moments in the family of a man with AIDS would have .
In the Simons newsletter, the Jennyfer video is also accompanied by a message from Peter Simons, explaining the reason for this initiative, based on the values of mutual aid of the 180-year retailer.
In the Journal, the businessman explained that he met Jennyfer in Vancouver after speaking to various organizations to find an inspirational person with the intention of creating a beauty-themed campaign. Peter Simons saw it in the young woman’s resilience, although the decision to seek medical help while dying is still controversial. For him, life is the focus, not choice.
“I have to say when you see beauty you have gratitude and when you have gratitude you have hope and generosity. If we’re lucky, we want to take care of each other. Not only from my mother and my children, whom I love unconditionally, but from others, people I don’t know. I want to believe that it is a catalyst for generosity and a movement towards human reconnection, ”the businessman confided.
The pandemic has caused a lot of isolation and also a sense of fragility. In this context, it seemed important to Mr. Simons to produce something beautiful with the intention of making a difference. However, he concedes that it is a difficult story.
In order to realize this project with his team, Peter Simons remembered an advice from his father.
“See what’s in your heart and when it’s in the right place you have to see it through because there will always be people who doubt and you will never do anything in your life without courage. »
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